Steam - 21-4-2014 at 18:06
I was wondering how would one create oligosaccharides from simple starches? Not particularly any one single oligosaccharide but just a mixture of
multiple saccharides of high molar mass.
I know that polysaccharides are numbered in length from 1-15 I think. I am looking for sizes of about 5-ish.
mnick12 - 21-4-2014 at 21:53
I have made some oligosacharides from potato starch and an alpha amylase enzyme. The enzyme is the extract of some species of trichroderma (or was it
Asperigillus?), it cleaves 1,4- glycocidic bonds. I also have one that will do 1,6 bonds.
Anyway what I did was suspend 10 gr of starch in 200ml of cold water, and heat to around 180. Its important you add the starch cold otherwise it will
gum up in contact with water. Anyway once the starch is gelatinized you will have a blob of clear snot. Depending on the enzyme cool to under 150F and
ad a few mg of enzyme, the pH should be around 6. Instantly the goo will begin to liquefy into a thinner liquid. This can then be slowly dried to
yield a mix of oligosacharides. I am not sure which ones, but it is not glucose, maltose, or maltotriose because brewers yeast won't ferment it.
This method is pretty easy, and depending on which enzyme you buy 100ml will convert ~250lb of starch!
Also out of curiosity what do you want with the sacharides?
good luck!
Steam - 22-4-2014 at 05:22
Thanks! Also do you know of a good way to dry it a moisture level of under 5%?
I was thinking putting it in a vacuum and gently heating it? Maybe there is something I am missing here.
I am working on making a saccharide "sponge" which I can impregnate with various non polar or semi polar solvents. Possibly even adding supercritical
CO2. Using this I hope to make a dry powder, Oder-absorbing cleaner. I plan to experiment using various supercritical fluids to see whichs works best!
Any thoughts on this?
[Edited on 22-4-2014 by Steam]
mnick12 - 23-4-2014 at 15:44
I don't know much about the topic you are describing, so I can't offer any ideas there.
However when I dried my stuff I just popped it in the oven @~200F overnight. It formed a hard crust that was latter powdered, and used in a brewing
project. However it sounds like for what you are doing you might need something a little more controlled. I would suggest a rotovap for drying, and if
you don't have one pulling vacuum on the mix in an oil bath with stirring might accomplish the same thing.
Steam - 24-4-2014 at 11:03
No you helped! I just wanted to see if the water could be extracted without burning the starch.